Saturday, November 3, 2007

The Week That Was and The One That Is!!!!


I am tired....no....let me rephrase that....I am stuffed!!! Why oh why does everything that is 'a set date' have to happen at this time of year. I have explained my exhaustion to anyone who'll listen (and give sympathy) like this.....in 13 days straight, I have 12 'other' things on. By 'other' I mean things that either a) I don't usually do or b) occur after my usual work hours.

These 'other' things are vast and varied. They include high school information night, parent dinner, a certain birthday, music concert night, sport and parties amongst other school and work commitments.

The result of all of this is that I am not even thinking straight at the moment. I know that I'll look back on these two weeks and feel excited and proud of the memories of all of these events, but right now I am typing through glassy eyes and thinking through a foggy brain!!! In fact, I even win 'bad mother' award this week for forgetting to put a band concert excursion into my diary and dropped the twelve year old to school on Friday in the wrong uniform just as they were packing the instruments onto the bus! Whoops!!! Oh, the shame!!! I begged forgiveness and borrowed a uniform from the second hand shop, claimed that my life was a total disaster at the moment and waved the bus off as I dashed off to work!

Oh, and let's not forget that I still have to work and maintain the usual household chores in the midst of it all!!

So right now, the only thing that I can think is 'Thank God for.....':

* slow cookers
* take away dinners
* parents who babysit
* early nights that I might one day get
* sleep in Sundays
* clothes that still miraculously fit (and grrr to the ones that don't!!!)
* a husband who discovers and repairs flat tyres (yep...that also added to the stress this week!)
* washing that dries on the line overnight
* children who appreciate all the running around that you do for them (ok, I threw that one in as a part of my wishful thinking!)
* and friends who understand that spotlessly clean houses are not a direct indicator of your strength of character!!!!!

As a follow-on from last week, I can also update the cricket match from this morning. The twelve year old was captain of today's match and did an excellent job of cheering his players on and setting a great field (so much so that I overheard the coach of the other team commenting on it!). In the end of the first innings, the other team had 8 runs to win and one wicket to spare. The twelve year old went on to bowl for his first bowling stint of the day. His first ball was plum lbw (that is 'leg-before-wicket' for the uninitiated...one of those tricky cricket terms that basically means that the batsman didn't play a shot and if his leg hadn't been there, the ball would have knocked the stumps over....a rule brought into the game, I think to stop batsman standing around all day and not really playing but rather wasting time). So the lbw was not given out as the umpire 'gave the batsman the benefit of the doubt'. The twelve year old was so annoyed that he bowled the next ball faster and at the wickets once again and took out middle stump!!! Woo hoo!!! A match-saving play.